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How to Convert AVI to MOV File

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David James
Updated on Aug 29, 2023

Videos come in different formats. As the most common operating systems, you probably know that both Mac and Windows have their own file containers and codecs, which makes it is nearly impossible to get all possible video formats played on multiple platforms smoothly. In general, while AVI, a Windows' standard multimedia format, work better on Windows than MOV formats, QT MOV will work better than AVI on a Mac.

Why you need to convert .avi to .mov ?

Although Macs can recognize Mjpeg .avi file, for most other AVI files, you would need a third party plugin component like Perian to be installed on your Mac so that you then can play AVI on QuickTime player. But that still limits the usage of AVI on Macs. If you have .avi files that originated on a PC and want to drag to iTunes library, for example, you would get a pop-up box with incompatible issue message. So the way you go after the best is to convert the AVI to a MOV format on Mac OS X.

What sort of AVI to MOV converter you should get?

There are a large number of AVI converters out there that claim to convert Xvid .avi file to MOV or h.264 .avi to MOV and others, so that you then will play the videos on Macs, stream them on iOS devices, bring them into Final Cut Pro (ProRes .mov) and iMovie. Today, we'll take a program called Video Converter.

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for Windows | for Mac

It is lightweight, fast and easy to use, while converting all sorts of file types and producing decent output results. In addition to the simple conversion from an AVI to an MOV format on Mac and Windows, the program gives you the ability to adjust any of the optional encoding settings, and purposefully bundles with lots of presets in an effort to convert the video suit for popular devices you would like to watch on.

Now, we are going to show you how to convert an AVI on Mac to a QuickTime MOV file. The progress in Windows is actually the same.

(Note: You can also use the application to convert any other files such as MP4 to Mac MOV, WMV to MOV, AVI to MP4, AVI to MKV, and more. The operation steps are acutally similar.)

How to convert videos in .avi to .mov for Mac OS X and Windows

Install the right version of Video Converter on your machine and open it. You will see a main screen like this:

The options marked with "Add File", "Profile" and "Convert" are the must-have basic steps for entire process.

Stage 1 – Load AVI files

To do that, drag and drop your AVI video files you want to convert from your Mac or PC machine to the main window.

Or, go to the top left side and use "Add File" button to finish this step.

Stage 2 – Choose a conversion format to save - MOV

Then, select a format as output. This AVI to MOV converter for Mac allow you picking up a huge selection of outgoing formats. For the purpose of this article, we just need MOV format.

So, click the "Profile" drop-down menu on the lower left-hand side to open up a Format list window like this:

Now, you go to "General Video" category to select "MOV Video" profile.

Stage 2.1 – Encode Settings (optional)

If you would like to have a little more control over the quality of output result, you can click the "Settings" option next to "Profile", which will bring you a new window where you adjust settings like video/audio codec, bitrate, resolution and others. - This is optional.

Stage 2.2 – Pick presets

It is your extra bonus!

This AVI converter provides a wide range of ready presets for exporting your video out for the most popular devices at this time. These range from iPhone 6 (2015), PS4, Apple TV to Xbox One, Galaxy S5, Kindle Fire. All you need to do is choose the preset, the software will optimize all output settings for you.

Stage 3 – Edit the video (optional)

It is also flexible and customizable as you can use the built-in video editor to edit the video: trim, crop, watermark, effect and 3D. This is self-exploratory and optional.

Stage 4 – Begin the converting from AVI to QuickTime MOV in Mac

After all things looks right in stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3, simply click on the blue "Convert" button on the lower right corner and leave the converter to do its thing. All of AVI items will be converted to MOV one by one.

You can see the conversion status on the interface.

This entire process might take a while, but the software will convert the AVI to MOV quickly on your Mac, as it's capable of make full use of your Mac's multi-core processor.

Done!

 

Related Extented Source:

As a file containter, AVI has actually been supported by QuickTime for years, but most of the AVI compression codecs such as Xvid, DivX widely used to encode videos in AVI container are not friendly in QuickTime player, which has no built-in relative codecs to recognize them by default. Only a relatively few, like DV, Cinepak, and Motion JPEG (with PCM audio) are natively supported by QT. In most instances, you will have to install 3rd party codec packages or convert to to something what QuickTime likes natively - like .mov / .mp4 / m4v file.

About David James
iTransfer
Transfer music, photos and videos to and from iPhone/ iPad without using iTunes.